Assessing Spatial Accessibility of Public and Private Residential Aged Care Facilities: A Case Study in Wuhan, Central China

Abstract

Abstract:In the increasingly serious aging China, aged service is the provision of one of the most urgent and important public services to citizens, and private facilities has become an important service force with the aged service market opening in China. This study aims to explore the spatial variation in the accessibility of residential aged care facilities (RACFs) and compared the service capacity of public RACFs and private RACFs. It facilitates RACFs to be allocated rationally in the future and achieve the equalization of aged services. A village-level analysis of spatial access to public and private RACFs by the multi-catchment sizes Gaussian two-step floating catchment area (MCSG2SFCA) method was conducted through a case study in Wuhan City in Central China. The major results are as follows: (1) the accessibility of RACFs in urban areas is better than that in rural areas; (2) the public RACFs still dominate aged care services but the role of private RACFs is important as well; (3) in developed urban areas, the accessibility to private RACFs surpasses that of public ones, and the situation is opposite in rural areas; (4) the capacity of aged care services in Wuhan is not high, meanwhile there is remarkable regional disparity. The accessibility of RACFs in Wuhan is not satisfactory, and there is a significant gap between urban and rural areas. The private RACFs have significantly improved the urban capacity of aged care services, but the role in rural areas is still very weak.

Disparities in Geographical Access to Hospitals in Portugal

“…Research highlighted that measuring geographical accessibility enables: (1) to quantify differences in access [35,68]; (2) to identify gaps in service provision [69][70][71]; (3) to model optimal facility location [72,73]; (4) to identify inequalities in service provision [74,75]; (5) to promote evidence-based health policies [76][77][78][79]. Hence, measuring geographical accessibility can be an essential element to support rationing decisions that affect both the process of urban area development and spatial planning of health resources, and reinforce the need for interventions that promote and improve the population health of a community [2,8,9,42,75,[80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87]. However, geographical accessibility is often misunderstood and inadequately measured on many studies and local plans [15].…”

The Spatial Equity of Nursing Homes in Changchun: A Multi-Trip Modes Analysis

“…In 2017, the number of elderly people in China (over 60 years of age) reached 240 million [1,2]. This makes China the country with the largest number of elderly people in the world [3]. Changchun is the capital city of Jilin province, located in the plains of Northeast China, which is currently growing into an aging city.…”

Spatial Disparities and Correlated Variables of Community Care Facility Accessibility in Rural Areas of China

“…By reviewing the literature, it can be found that relevant studies pay more attention to the assessment of spatial accessibility of RACFs [13][14][15][16], while the assessment of accessibility of CCFs is seldom studied. Wu H C and Tseng M H used government data from Taiwan Province for 2017 to assess geographic accessibility of CCFs using six measures, constructed a comprehensive evaluation index, and proposed three steps for policy planning and improvement for older adults [17].…”